


The Outbreak in Sunshine Valley

by BlueAlmond



Category: DCU (Comics), Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Bruce Is a Good Bro, F/M, Fluff and Angst, I just wanted to write a story where Bruce and Tony were pals, I really don't like killing people, M/M, and this is what i came up with, but I did because ZOMBIES
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 12:58:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14811821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueAlmond/pseuds/BlueAlmond
Summary: There is an outbreak. A weird illness is affecting the citizens of a little town in New Jersey and the government is starting to pay attention. The Society of Heroes is called to inspect the area, their scientists to find a cure, and while they’re at it, keep the ill… contained.





	The Outbreak in Sunshine Valley

**Author's Note:**

> So I started to write this story in January of 2017, wrote about 20k words and then abandoned it for a year. I'm posting it because it's almost finished and some encouragement could be useful...  
> I hope you'll enjoy it! English is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes!
> 
> All there is to know about the universe in which this occurs is that it's a world where there are characters from both, Marvel and DC, though only some of them are superheroes (at the beginning, at least).

**Day One: Thursday**

“Hey Hank, is everything okay? You look kind of sick, maybe you should go to bed early today… Hank?”

The next few minutes went in slow motion, and when it was over, Harry could hear his own heartbeat and had to swallow back yesterday’s lunch. He dialed for the police with trembling hands, and the only thing he could say was that there was a dead man in his garden and that he himself could use some medical attention.

“Good afternoon Harry, show me the corpse and tell me what happened,” Clinton Barton, one of the newest cops in town, recently moved here from Iowa, asked with that easy smile of his. Even though he was the new guy in a town where most people lived their entire lives in, he was easy to love, and had already made a place of his own.

“Hank’s gone nuts! I had to shot him, twice!” Harry explained with wide eyes, the shotgun still in his hand and his phone in the other.

“Wait, what?” he frowned. That was not something that happened a lot in Sunshine Valley, New Jersey.

“I shot him in the arm first and he kept attacking me.”

“Hank Pym, the same Hank that’s always helping everyone with their gardens and building toys for the children.”

“Yes. I started talking to him because I got worried, you know, he looked sick. But when he turned around to see me, he just… went nuts. And ran towards me in something like… rage, his eyes were deorbited and it looked like he had vomited… and then he bit me. It was like he wanted to _eat_ me.”

“He bit you?”

“Yes, why? You don’t think whatever it was is contagious, do you?”

“Well, it could be. The best we can do is taking you to the hospital so they can check on you. Is there any witnesses who could confirm your story, Harry?”

“Yes, Peter was here. He’s vomiting in the bathroom.”

“Was he bitten too?”

“No, he’s just a pussy. I tell you Clint, Hank went nuts. He was freaking scary.”

“Alright, Harry, I’ll just go check on Peter, and we’ll better wait for an ambulance to take Hank. Maybe the paramedics could see you too.”

“Yeah, that’d be nice.”

Barton frowned at the man’s arm. It was a nasty bite, he hadn’t seen anything like it before, and that disturbed him. Everything about the scene felt surreal, but he didn’t think that Harry was lying, and he had learnt to trust his gut. And yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was at the beginning of a movie the whole time. He found the man in the bathroom, gargling, and silently thanked God he was done vomiting.

“You okay, Peter?”

“Yeah, I’m just…” he shivered. “It was horrible, alright? Hank just… ran towards us like a freaking zombie. He even bit Harry! Do you think it could be something infectious? I don’t want to end up like that, man.”

“Relax, you were not bitten, right?” Peter shook his head. “Then you don’t have to worry. Whatever it was, I don’t think you’re in risk. Harry, however…” Clint grimaced, “he really should have that checked. I already called for an ambulance though, so you can calm down.” He had confirmed Harry’s story without even having to ask, and he was pretty sure they were not lying. The whole thing was still weird, and he probably would have nightmares that night, but at least he was not dealing with a homicide.

**Day Two - and early hours of Saturday**

“And that was everything on the meteor shower. We’re back with you, Lois.”

“Thank you, Jane; that was very interesting. But now I’ll have to bring some sour and confusing news. There hasn’t been an official statement yet, but the government has sent a medical team to a little town in New Jersey which is currently in orange alert, and the entrance and egress of common citizens are being supervised. It seems to be some kind of epidemic, a decease that’s making the ill go mad. Some of the symptoms we’ve been able to hear from people who’ve already left town are high fevers, vomit, and the loss of conscious. Apparently, if they ever wake up from it, they are not entirely coherent—”

“Thank you, Lois, and now, the weather.”

“What?” it was possible to see the reporter frowning before they cut her. She didn’t even take her mic off before hurrying to face the producer for an explanation that wouldn’t satisfy her. A man with glasses and a feline smile stayed next to him but wouldn’t speak a word to her. It wasn’t hard to deduce that the government had sent him.

“They’re not going to let us talk about it?”

“There is nothing to talk about yet, Lois. We’d just be alarming everybody, raising chaos, when there is no need for that. We’ll address the situation again once they give an official statement.”

“And what are we supposed to do in the meantime? The people just, stay there, keep traveling or living without considering possible risks?”

In the meantime, the good people of Sunshine Valley were having a hard time with all the black cars and the tents outside the city and the new doctors and the possible quarantine everyone was talking about. Nobody was sick, so what was the whole deal about?

**[40 minutes earlier]**

“Harry…”

“I’m fine, Peter, I mean it! I just… feel a little dizzy. And like, everything is… hard, like my brain is overloaded somehow, but I’m fine. I will be fine.”

“He bit you, Harry… what if… what if whatever he had…?”

“Nothing is going to happen, alright? Calm down man,” the blue-eyed boy tried to give his friend a reassuring smile, but his eyes were too feverish for him to look anything but sick, and the muscles of his face weren’t exactly cooperating either. As the minutes passed, the snore coming from his chest became more and more loud, and his left arm jolted violently once.

“Harry?” Peter muttered weakly, shivering dimly.

The boy only stared at him with unfocused eyes and dry, slightly parted lips.

“Harry… if this is a joke, it’s a terrible one.”

***

“He didn’t bite me,” Peter assured, shaking his head.

“But he attacked the nurse,” said Barton.

“Yes,” he nodded.

“And then you hid,” he was replaying the scene in his head, trying to imagine what the high school sophomore had gone through.

“Yeah, in the bathroom,” Peter licked his lips nervously and stuttered: “I, I didn’t, I didn’t want to believe that he had whatever Mr. Pym had, sir. So I tried to, to talk to him, and when he stood up it was already too late to call for help. The nurse only entered the room because she knew he shouldn’t be standing, but then he bit her, and all I could do, all I could do was—” he swallowed a sob, closed his eyes and shook his head, “I hid. I ran to the bathroom and closed the door while the nurse shouted. Harry was hardly scratched, and this happened to him, so I figured she was more than dead, or whatever… that is.”

Clint sighed and rubbed his face with his left hand while trying to think of something adequate to tell the kid, but he couldn’t think of anything. He wasn’t sure how he would’ve reacted in a similar situation, being just a kid and without a gun, seeing his best friend eating alive an innocent stranger, but he surely knew how he would’ve felt afterwards if he hadn’t done anything to stop him. He ended up patting the kid’s shoulder with an expression he hoped told him he didn’t blame him, and left him there to the doctors to see. He didn’t believe the kid was lying about being bitten, but he couldn’t risk it. He already thought that had he done anything differently things wouldn’t have ended up the way they did. It was stupid, really. He had been called after the incident, so there really was nothing he could’ve done to help Harry, but now he had three bodies and several mortified civilians and all he could wish for was they were not losing another infected person, but he couldn’t be sure. He had told the doctors about the bite, they knew they had to keep an eye on Harry and still… this had happened.

**[Metropolis, 54 minutes later]**

“I’m telling you Clark, they’re hiding something. The freaking government is hiding something,” Lois groaned.

“You’re on national TV now Lois, you knew they were going to censure you…”

“But I never thought they’d be so obvious, Smallville! They just… cut me off!”

“You didn’t follow the script.”

“Are you justifying them? On what side are you?”

Before the farm boy could defend himself, his expression quickly changed from sheepish to serious, and focused on something the brunette couldn’t hear.

“Is it superhero business?” she muttered slightly anxious, “Oh dear, is it about Sunshine Valley?”

“Relax, Lois, I… it’s probably nothing, but I still have to go. The Society of Heroes is needed somewhere…”

“The entire league and you say it’s probably nothing?” she giggled nervously. “Then this is about Sunshine Valley. Oh my God, the world is ending.”

“Lois,” Superman chuckled, “relax, the world isn’t ending. And if it was, it wouldn’t be the first time we stop it from happening,” he gave her a dazzling, endearing smile, and took off.

“You better not become a zombie then, Smallville.”

***

Superman was having some trouble staying in character.

He wasn’t _scared_ per se, but the infected they had in quarantine in the hospital were making him nervous. The doctors thought it would still take a few hours for the ill to lose control the way the first patient had, which apparently had _bitten_ a few people, like a freaking zombie, just like he had been bitten the day before, about fifteen hours earlier.

He thought Batman probably wouldn’t have such problems. Of course he couldn’t really tell, since he’d never seen the man, but he liked to believe the hacker was as cold and rational as his texts were. He wanted to text him. Honestly, he always wanted to text him. It had taken some time to learn to trust someone who hid behind a computer, but now he hardly took any important decision regarding the SOH without asking for his opinion. Not that the man valued it so much anyway.

In the end he sighed and decided to take his chances. He wrote: ‘Hey, Bats? I know you’re technically part-time and all that, but I really think you should see this’

‘ _I’m busy, Superman._ ’

‘And we really could use your help’

The Batman took so long to reply that Superman actually thought he wouldn’t do it. It wasn’t a surprise; the hacker wasn’t exactly a part of the Society of Heroes, and he only had gotten his number a few months ago. Besides he would only write back whenever he thought it was important. The few times Superman had tried to have a light conversation to find out more about the cyber-vigilante he hadn’t gotten an answer.

‘ _What is it?_ ’

‘It’s some sort of disease, I think’

‘ _You think?_ ’

‘Look, if you could just check on it… I’ll send you some samples to your lab, is that okay? You don’t even need to come here’

‘ _Ok._ ’

He released the breath he didn’t know he was holding after he got the message, and collected all the data he could to send to the bat. He already had showed advanced knowledge in virology and toxicology, and somewhat he trusted this man would see more than anyone in the tent right now. The ginger man the government had sent was studying the corpse of the first victim with a wicked grin, and he just knew he couldn’t deal with him. He was glad Captain America had already spoken with him, or he would’ve needed to ask him to do so.

“Kal, everything okay?” the blond pat him in the shoulder and gave him a concerned look.

He tried to give him a reassuring smile, but failed. “I’m a little nervous about this whole situation. Are you sure we’re needed here?”

“Yeah,” he nodded and sighed, placing his hands on his hips and looking away. “The forensics are pretty sure whatever happened to this men was no accident. They’re considering it was some kind of biological weapon.”

“If that’s the case, do you think Stark Industries is somewhat involved?”

“Well, Mr. Pym was working there now.”

Superman sighed. “Is Hope coming?”

Captain America nodded. “She should be here soon,” he announced, and seemed to get lost in his thoughts staring at the limits of the city. He’d only been in Sunshine Valley twice before, and both times had been to visit his teammate’s father. Back when they just found him in the ice, Hank Pym still worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., and he’d been a friendly face in the middle of all the chaos that the twenty first century was for him. He had lost people before, the war had prepared him for it and being a leader of the Society of Heroes also meant he could never escape that risk, but he still got a little dizzy when he saw his friend’s cold body in the cold, sterile table with his chest wide open. He never thought he would’ve preferred having found him in the street under a sheet or inside a black bag, but at least that would’ve been something he was somewhat used to.

He could only imagine what was going through the minds of the little town’s residents.

***

“Are you sure this is a good idea? The neighbors are freaking out. Claire texted me and apparently there are superheroes at the hospital. Do you think he had rage or something like that?”

Matt barely shrugged with a discreet smile. “I don’t know, Foggy. Why don’t you give me a hand and start reading the case for me, would you? We’re still going to have a trial on Monday, even if Mr. Pym got bitten by a bat. Last time I checked, you couldn’t get infected for living across the street. Come on, what did it say about the time she spent at the mental facility?”

The blond shook his head with a hopeless expression, but began reading. He’d trust his friend that usually had a good intuition, but texted Claire anyway. She was nice; definitely nicer than Matt’s ex that was still MIA somewhere in Europe, but he thought the ginger wasn’t seriously considering her. He still hadn’t forgotten the Greek, no matter how many times he’d tell him she wasn’t worth it, and he wouldn’t even spare Karen a second thought, even when the blonde was clearly madly in love with him. He sighed in the middle of his speech and kicked himself immediately later, when his partner arched an eyebrow and stared at him in that weird way, with his glasses on, that would make him feel like the ginger was really watching him even though he knew that was impossible. He kept reading, thankfully uninterrupted apart from a few comments regarding their case. It was an important case, Foggy remembered. If they won, and he knew they could, their firm would gain fame and an enviable reputation for such a young partnership. He still had yesterday’s morning’s episode at the back of his head, but he focused on his job, and kept his phone nearby. He trusted Claire would call if anything terrible happened. He managed to work for another hour before stress got the better of him.

“I think I’m going to call Claire. She told me she’d be texting me, but she hasn’t sent anything in the whole morning.”

“She’s probably too busy to talk,” Matt reasoned, but Foggy shook his head nervously.

“I’ll call her. I’m sure it won’t bother her,” he swallowed and took a deep breath before making the call. Each passing second in which no one answered made his heartbeat go faster, but it was when they finally did that he barely passed out. “Is she okay?” he barely coped to mumble. By his side, Matt was deadly silent, probably listening to his conversation if his white knuckles meant anything. Foggy nodded even though the people at the other side of the line couldn’t see him. “Alright, I’ll do that. Thank you,” he hand up and released a shaky breath. “You heard all that, right?”

The Murdock nodded slowly.

“Okay… I imagine you’re coming with me, aren’t you?”

The ginger nodded again.

***

“Tony?” Bruce Wayne wasn’t that surprised to find the Stark at his door one Saturday at 2:33 in the morning. He was no ignorant to the eccentricities of his old friend, and even the dark look on the man’s face didn’t alarm him.

“I screwed up. I need help. To be more specific, I need _your_ help. I need your discretion. I need…”

“Calm down, get in and try to collect your thoughts first.” He stepped aside to let the other in, and walked him to the kitchen to get some very necessary coffee.

“I was working on something great, but at some point it became a lethal biological weapon. I wasn’t going to let it like that, of course, but one of my men made a mistake and ended up somewhat infected.”

“The epidemic in Sunshine Valley, that’s what it is. I knew it had to be some kind of weapon, but you made it? What’s it made of?”

Tony shook his head. “That was not my intention, alright? And I can’t really tell you its compounds right now…”

“If you want my help, you’ll have to tell me everything,” Bruce said calmly.

“And I will, of course, but not now, and not here, I just…” he sighed exasperated and tried to rip off his hair. “I’m sorry I’m getting you into this mess. I haven’t talked with the authorities, they don’t know what’s going on but I recognized the symptoms. The fever, the vomits, the eventual disconnection of the brain and the… hunger, they turn into freaking zombies, this is like a terrible movie.”

“Don’t be like that, depending on the director and interpretations it could actually be a pretty good one,” the Wayne considered after one long sip of his coffee.

“Bruce…” Tony grimaced.

“Sorry. If you know what’s causing it, why haven’t you spoken to the authorities?”

“I can’t have that bad publicity, Bruce!” The Stark began to pace around the room.

“Are you seriously trying to tell me that your reputation is more important than the human lives your serum is taking?”

“Of course not, but talking with the authorities is not going to change anything, they still won’t be able to fix it! Not even I know how to fix the problem; I’ve been working on it for months now.”

“Maybe that’s the problem. You’re too deep on it and need a fresh look.”

“That’s why I’m asking your help.”

Bruce sighed. “Alright, we’ll do it your way, but I still feel like we should contact the authorities.”

“We’ll do it eventually, I promise. Now we need to leave. Alfred can take care of Damian, I bet. We need to get to my lab and figure something out before seven so I can decide what to tell to my employees. I probably should close the facilities for a few days, just in case whatever started this thing is still loose in the building.”

“You better don’t turn me into a zombie, Anthony Edward Stark, or I swear Alfred will find you, and you won’t like it.”

“I’m positive I wouldn’t be able to live with the consequences. Now go get dressed, I’ll be waiting here.”

“Did you bring your jet?”

“Of course I brought my jet, how do you think I got here? You should thank God you have such a ridiculously large yard, or else I would’ve had some trouble landing.”

The Wayne rolled his eyes. “I’ll be ready in a minute.”

**Day Three**

On Saturday morning half of the city had already packed their things. All they knew was that a dangerous decease had started there, and nobody wanted to have anything to do with it. By noon, the government had circled the town, and nobody could enter or leave without going through an extended control. Things were going slowly, but it was working. It was working until sometime around five, when it didn’t anymore.

Tim, who was still far from the gates, realized that whatever was happening upfront was dangerous and flew the scene; he wanted to get out, but he also wanted to survive, and something told him that he wouldn’t make it over there. He started walking away hurriedly, but didn’t run until he heard the first scream. He didn’t even turn to see who made it, or why, and panic slowly made his way up until he was trembling completely terrified and couldn’t think of anything. He had never been happier to trip over when he somewhat found himself against a solid, metallic door on the ground covered by obstacles recently placed, clearly on purpose. He knocked on it, and didn’t even have time to stress over they would let him in or not, because they opened it immediately.

“Dude, what are you doing? You can’t just let people inside every time they nock! Some of them can still think!”

“He’s just a kid!”

“What if he’s been bitten?”

“I haven’t, I swear, I started to walk away before the yelling. I, I was faraway, didn’t really understand what was going on.”

“That’s what a bitten person would say!”

“Man, you’re hysterical, try to calm down, he’s just a kid, and although he looks shaken up, he’s apparently fine. Look at his clothes; look at his shoes and his face. I don’t think he’s been bitten.”

“Fine, you can stay then. Apparently one of the infected tried to get out and since he couldn’t… he started biting everybody. Or at least that’s how it looked like.”

“What is this place?”

“It’s an underground pub.”

“Oh…”

The teenager looked around and was surprised to find at least other fifteen people around, some of them he’d seen before, some he hadn’t, but all of them looked scared, and almost no one was talking. Everyone seemed to be waiting for something to happen, for someone to open the gate from outside and say they could get out, but Tim knew that wouldn’t happen anytime soon. All they could hear were screams, gunshots and other things falling, maybe the victims trying to protect themselves or something. Nobody really wanted to think too much about it, about how they could’ve helped, because it was too dangerous, too impetuous to actually try to do something for another human being when their own lives were in stake.

When the commotion died a little, a man with a brown look that could freeze anyone and a permanent grimace dared to take a look outside. His badge was hidden underneath his coat and his glasses hanging from the tip of his nose.

“Outside is pure chaos,” he said, stunned.

“Are people going out?”

“The gates are probably locked,” commented a man with green hair that was playing with a deck of cards over the bar.

“What?” a woman snapped.

“They left us here! We’re trapped!” another shouted hysterically.

“Does that mean that we’re all infected?” a ginger man with glasses questioned.

“Or they don’t want to risk it, I don’t know. The point is that we’re on our own. There are no laws now, the government has abandoned us so…” the green-haired man shrugged, “why should we keep listening?”

“What are you saying?” the man with the glasses frowned.

“I believe that we should get some guns, some food, and… survive. And get out of here if possible, because they are not coming with a cure any time soon.” Another man, a brunet, said, and the one with the cards sighed theatrically.

“I have to admit that I like what you say about food. Actually, I’d like to make a trip to the mall and, I don’t know, empty it. Who’s with me?” he grinned.

“We don’t even know each other’s names…” Timothy, who had been quiet ever since they let him in and was seated against a faraway wall muttered weakly.

The green-haired man rolled his eyes. “Why is that important? What’s the difference if you call me Jack, or Jamie, or Jerome?” he abruptly stopped playing with his cards and took one. “You can call me Joker, if you want to call me something.”

The brunet who was ready to guide the group into survival rolled his eyes and said as if the man hasn’t said anything at all: “I’m Harvey Dent.”

“I’m Tim.” The boy offered a tiny smile and stood up.

“Okay Tim, is that a backpack you have with you? Everybody, do you have luggage, or bags where we can put the things we’ll need to cover our necessities?”

“As…?”

“Water, food, blankets and clothes… I believe that covers it.”

“They disconnected us. There are no signals or WIFI, and I don’t know for how long we’ll have electricity. Things like chargers for phones or laptops may not be useful. But then again, there is more to them than just communication. They contain pictures, and music, and videos and books…”

“I believe we’ll leave that to everyone’s priorities. But all of us need to understand that the most important things right now are those who’ll allow us to survive,” the Dent spoke as a person used to being heard, and people did just that. In a matter of minutes, they were going out.

***

“What are you doing?” the man of steel inquired in the main tent, where secretary of Defense Amanda Waller and other high ranked officers were deadly silent.

“Close the gates!” General Lane shouted one more time, shaking soldiers running everywhere around him.

“People are still inside— Captain!” Superman intersected his colleague and friend and stared into his eyes with despair. “We can’t let them close the gates, Captain, people are still inside, and the virus hasn’t spread that—”

“It already reached the gates, Superman,” the blond stated severely, “there is nothing we can do unless we find a cure. Controlling the movement of civilians has become impossible.”

“We have to try—”

“And get more people infected? And take the virus outside this town? We don’t know what this is, as far as we know it could be magic and affect you too. We cannot risk it, Kal, I’m sorry.”

***

When the Red Hood finally got inside the city the sun had hidden, and the place was deserted. Abandoned cars and open houses revealed an unfriendly panorama, and the few noises he could hear didn’t exactly tell him anything. Then he heard a young girl scream.

He hurried to the source of it with a gun in his hand and his hood on, not really knowing what to expect, but when he saw a couple of drunk guys trying to get to a girl who was now escalating a building, he didn’t think it twice and shot. The blonde who probably wasn’t more than sixteen turned around and thanked him, but before she could get down safely, a woman looking sick and groaning opened the nearest window and tried to grab her. The girl jumped immediately and fell on her side, but then the woman tried to follow her, without thinking in the two-story fall that would face her, and threw herself over the girl, who grabbed a nearby bottle and broke it on the woman’s face, but that didn’t stop her. Only then, Jason realized he really had to shoot, and so he did.

“Oh my God, what took you so long? She was clearly infected!” the girl yelled.

“What the fuck is going on? I feel like I’m inside a freaking videogame!” Jason shrieked, staring wide-eyed at the corpse of the woman on the floor. The dress seemed weirdly familiar.

“You’re not the only one.” She grumbled.

“Why is the city blocked? I barely got in, they wouldn’t…”

“Why would you do that? Now you won’t be able to get out!” the blonde interrupted him, shocked and borderline hysteric.

“I don’t understand, why did they close it in the first place? Who are you, what happened to that woman? Why was she attacking you?”

“You haven’t heard? We’re like in a freaking zombie apocalypse here!”

Jason had to sit down. He fell on the ground and took his hood off. “What?”

The girl sighed. “You really hadn’t heard, and you reentered the city, oh God, that is so wrong… I’m Stephanie, by the way. And those guys,” she pointed to the firsts Jason had shot,” one was my teacher and the other a friend of my dad. They were good people, but they got sick. I don’t know who that woman was, but I don’t doubt she wouldn’t have done that before. We don’t have much information, only that two days ago we had the first case, yesterday the government sent some people here and today they blocked the freaking town. Apparently is some kind of decease, but they’re not telling us anything. Surely they’re looking for a cure. But in the meantime, they left the possible infected here to rot.”

“No fucking way…”

“Didn’t they try to warn you?”

Jason shook his head. “Everything they said was that the way was closed. I said I had to get in, that I needed to come and check on my mom and they let me in.”

“So either the guard was a sentimental fool, or he didn’t actually know what he’s dealing with.”

“It’s probably the first one. If my mom was alive and she really were sick I’d come anyway, with or without zombies. The problem now is that I have no family to worry about, and now I’m trapped.”

“At least you have guns.”

“I saw how you moved; most couldn’t have climbed that wall.”

“It was the adrenaline.”

“Sure. I’m Jason. We could stay together if you want. Get some food; maybe try to find a safe place.”

“I don’t think there is one.”

“What about your house?”

“My mom got sick, and my father left yesterday and I don’t think he’ll be coming back.” After she saw Jason’s face, she only shrugged. “Come on, I can assure you I’m not going to be the only sad story of Sunshine Valley. I still don’t want to see my mother as a zombie, though. Let’s find something else.”

“You said this thing started two days ago, it cannot have spread so fast, there has to be other survivors.”

“There were, but when they were trying to get out, an infected person tried to cross the gates and… well, everything went to hell. He bit a few guards and the thing just… spread. To pretty much everyone in there who were pretty much half the town. I was with my mother at home, thinking that she had some kind of flu, watching the news. She was the one who realized that was the thing she had, since the thing had started after her stylist bit her. She said I needed to get out of the house, that I wasn’t safe with her, that I should find other people and… survive. But I haven’t found anyone yet, except for you. Maybe they’re already dead.”

“No, I don’t think so. They must be hiding. Let’s go looking for them. We’re going to need food, guns, a roof…”

***

“We should find a place to stay the night,” Tim suggested.

“A place free of zombies, hopefully,” a brunet in his early forties that had been mostly quite the whole time commented with a tense smile.

“We could have two or three people on guard at all times, in turns of forty minutes each,” Gordon muttered while recharging his gun. “I believe we have enough guns and people to be able to run if needed. Let’s try to sleep. I’ll take the first shift.”

“You want to sleep here, in this shithole?”

“What do you suggest?”

“We could find a house and lock ourselves inside,” Harvey proposed, shrugging. “It would have more than one way out, several rooms, bathrooms and a kitchen.”

“It’s definitely better than a department store,” someone nodded.

“I don’t know, I always liked the idea of being alone in an abandoned mall,” the Joker said.

“Well, I never had that dream; I want to find a safe house.”

“And how exactly are we going to keep the zombies out?” the green-haired man inquired with a high-pitched voice that denoted his frustration. “A house has windows and fragile doors. Here we have lots of space, bathrooms, even food if we go to the third floor, and the walls are stronger. There are no windows in the first floor and there’s echo. We’ll hear them coming from miles, and we have places to hide.”

Most shared uncertain looks, and waited for the Dent to say something. He then sighed and nodded. “Alright, everybody make yourselves comfortable. We’re spending the night. With sunlight, we’ll look for a better place, or perhaps we’ll come back later on. Try to get some rest unless you’re supposed to be on guard. How long did you suggest the shifts should be?” he turned towards the brunet with the glasses.

Commissioner Gordon closed his jacket and looked around the crowd, studying parents, children, old and young. “Forty minutes each, with a marge of ten minutes in which one should change first and then the other.”

“You sure two guards are enough?”

Gordon nodded. “Yes. As long as both are alert and responsible, two should do.”

Harvey Dent took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he nodded. “Alright, I’ll take the first shift with you.”

**Author's Note:**

> In Word I used little clocks to separate paragraphs instead of '***', and they were so cute...


End file.
